Ms Jiaodi Zhang

Summary

Schistosomiasis is a serious parasitic disease of poverty, affecting almost 240 million people worldwide (WHO). Since water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) conditions are often insufficient in low- and middle-income countries, people who contact schistosome cercariae-contaminated freshwater are at risk of contracting this disease. Schistosomiasis can lead to various adverse health outcomes including anaemia, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, hepatosplenomegaly, and higher incidence of bladder cancer (WHO).

Drug treatment with praziquantel has been the major way to control schistosomiasis, but this intervention has some limitations. Praziquantel treatment cannot prevent re-infection, and also heavily relies on the coverage of drug distribution and donations. As a result, WASH interventions are encouraged by World Health Organization (WHO) as a part of schistosomiasis control and elimination in disease-endemic areas (WHA65.21, 2012). Hygiene, one aspect of WASH, might play a vital role in the disease transmission since it could directly reduce people’s infection risk during water-contact. This research project is aimed to systematically analyze the impact of hygiene in endemic areas, thereby providing decision-makers with scientific evidence to promote hygiene practice as an intervention to control the spread of this disease.

Jiaodi obtained a BEng in Environmental Engineering from Nankai University, China in 2017, and a MSc in Environmental Sciences from Peking University in 2020. She then joined the Imperial College London as a PhD student and is supervised by Prof Michael Templeton.

Publications

Journals